Education in knowledge societies

When it comes to student employment, everybody is pointing to the economic situation, especially to the global financial crisis. It seems that the financial situation will not improve for at least several years and finding works for graduating students would be impossible when companies are still reducing jobs and put many people in unemployment category. Most jobs in finance, banking, trading and business will take many years to recover but there are many jobs still available in the “Knowledge industry” and I believe preparing students for these careers should be the highest priority because without proper guidance and direction, we may lose a whole generation of people who could build the economy to prosperity. Let’s look at some major economic sectors in relationship to the youth employment:

The primary sector such as agriculture has already lost its importance since it does not provide much in the employment aspect. The secondary sector representing industrial production is decreasing rapidly because of low demand due to the financial crisis and highly competitions from other industrialized countries. Somehow, many developing countries are still investing heavily in this sector without a clear understanding of the globalization trends. What can be build is probably already being built by others at much cheaper price and better quality because countries such as China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan have been focusing on industrializes their economy for many years. Instead of investing in industry sector which require significant money to build factories and machineries that may take several years to implement then find out that the competitors already capture the market, we must look at the third sector which is the high technology and service sector, a relatively new and wide open market. To quickly keep up with this global trend, we must focus our effort and investment in education and training in this sector.

A fully developed economy in the “Knowledge society” has a tremendous need for a wide variety of specialized skills which require highly quality training. Since these skills are further developing and changing at a fast rate due to fast changing technologies, the training must be flexible to keep up with the industry needs with both training of college students and retraining of working adults. This kind of training requires a new thinking, new approach, and new method of teaching. If execute correctly, it can help avoid higher youth unemployment rates and maintain high qualification of the workforce as a competitive asset for the nation. This evidence can be seen in the statistical data for unemployment in many developed countries such as the U.S, and Europe. Countries like Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have applied this concept for successfully and their unemployment is much lower than in France, Belgium, Italy and Spain.

In countries like France, Belgium, Greece and Italy, general education represents the only type of formal education with examinations and degrees issued by government and recognized by employers. In this case, most students attend universities expecting the benefit in employment opportunities. This concept creates various issues to the education system such as: a) Strong competition for university admission, b) High dropout rate for those who cannot make it, c) Education institution become a monopoly and has no incentive to change, d) Training aims exclusively in “academic knowledge”, creates by academic community usually excluding knowledge and skills needed by the industry. Therefore many university graduates do not find employments they had expected and face unemployment problems. Countries with large number of youth unemployment with no prospect of the future usually have very high crime rate and many social problems. Drop-out students do not have any alternative to build a better future will also tend to involve in illegal trades or participate in crimes. Finally the labor market is characterized by high unemployment for many students, while the industry is lacking skilled workers to develop. In the highly competition of globalization, there are tremendous economic opportunity losses at both personal and national level and without a skilled workforce to build the new economy, some countries will be left behind with significant poverty and high crime rate.

The main issue arises from the fact that general education is often exclusively geared to the access to state university, while the majority of youngsters will not reach it and would rather need other training such as vocational or some practical skills for their life. Many reform attempts from inside the education system in France, Italy, Greece, to overcome the academic bias, which does not reflect the actual structures of economy, have failed. Even today, the academic tradition is still lingering on and refuses to accept the reality of changing time. In the mean time, Germany, Austria and the Scandinavia countries that also have strong academic systems similar to France, Italy and also have many failed attempts in the past, have learned their lessons. Early in the 1980s when industry expressed its needs, government began to review its education functions to produce highly skilled workers for the industry. They have created an education system based on the collaboration between the industry and private universities and encouraged them to come up with better training programs. This new education has significant impacts on the whole structure of its economy and evolved into a well design education systems that can be integrated back into the general education system.

As mentioned above, not everybody could get into universities and even when get in, some will drop out. The “academic training” in many state schools do not reflect the need of industry or response to the economy. Therefore, the new education system requires the industry to issue a clear definition of job profiles within special fields. This is a precondition for organize relevant training, for job counseling and government measures to match demand and supply. In Germany, there are roughly 380 job profiles grouped into 13 fields. Due to fast changes through globalization and technological innovations, these job definitions will be revised every few years by joint committees of the government and industries. Job profiles describe the main activities and necessary qualifications of a particular field. They are the starting point for training through the new education system. For example, in the software field, the job profile “Entry-level Programmer” requires certain knowledge of programming languages, computing system, software process, and testing techniques in which students do not have to attend a four year university but only need a Two-year college or vocational school. To promote youth employment, the new education system applied the “Learning by Doing” method by combining two learning environments: School and industry. Typically, students attend school for 2 days a week and spent the other 3 working days per week apply it in a software company as “Co-op” students. They receive salaries during the “Co-op” period and after complete the training; students usually get hired by the company. This type of training is working well for some job categories where students learn basic technical knowledge, math calculation or programming. Since the training program is based on the job profiles, described by the industry, students do not spend time learning academic knowledge but focus on what they must learn within the real work environment. I have visited several companies in Germany and Scandinavian and found that this education system has worked very well. Within the industry, there are relevant equipments, computing and well-defined work processes for students to use and be productive. During the training period of three years (in average, depending on the field), the “Co-Op” students or trainees are gradually being integrated into the work process. For their contribution, they receive a monthly compensation about half of a full time employee (approx. $ 700) and the company also receive tax incentive from government for hiring these students. I also found that large companies have many training fields and can hire thousand of “Co-Op” students where smaller companies may not be in a position to offer the full range of training opportunities in the respective field. All Co-Op students receive practical training at the company by the “Training Masters”, special teachers that undergo further special education before being entitled to train young people. Their qualifications and the whole process are being monitored by the Chambers of Trade and Industry or other responsible industry representatives. In smaller companies, the owners and managers very often are master trainer themselves. Training ends with two exams, one set by the 2 year school, the other by the industry. Passing these exams entitles students to a Certificate which is recognized by all potential employers. Since this education program was established in the early 1990s, numbers of youth employment have increased significantly. Most companies were very pleased to have skilled workers for their industry because they rely on the fact that the job experience is already there, and that they already know the students well enough to hire them based on their performance. Of course, the young skilled worker is free to go for employment in other companies if she or he wants to do so.

A similar program is also established with university students based on the job profiles. Most private universities have adapted a very flexible training curricula based on industry needs. In the software field, the job profile “Entry-Level Software Analyst” requires certain knowledge of the software life cycle, methods, and tools as well as the technical knowledge of analyze, architect, design, build and verify a software system. In this case, students typically enroll full time in a university for 9 months and spend 3 months working as “Intern” in a software company. They receive salaries during the internship and usually in the last year, before graduate they have to work on a “Capstone” project directed by a software company to verify their skills and know ledges. By collaborate early with the software industry, students know what are needed and focus their studies on certain areas. Student in university have much more choices to guide their career than the 2 years program. They take number of required courses but have several choices on the optional courses, depend on what they want to focus on.

Today, there still are many debates between private schools and state schools on the purpose, goals and mission of the new education system whether as educator must educate “Pure knowledge for human being” or “Specific industry knowledge for workers” but the fact is with the new education system, the number of youth employment is about 30% better than the general education system. It will take several years to gather enough data for a good research for conclusive results but we could use this short blog as a starting point for our discussion about the “knowledge society”. Of course, we can not solve all problems and there are many but I believe the collaboration between industry and education institution is the first step to improve the current education system. To have a highly skilled workforce to build our economy will allow us to actively participate in the knowledge society rather being an observer from the outside.

Sources

  • Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University

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